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How U.S. Navy Can Destroy Iranian Small Boat Swarm Attacks
(Warrior Maven) Kris Osborn - Iranian small boats have harassed and interfered with U.S. Navy ships and private commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Their tactical concept is to blanket or overwhelm a larger surface ship with multiple points and angles of attack so as to overwhelm deck-mounted guns and ship defenses. Explosive-packed small boats or those armed with shoulder-fired missiles could exact a substantial toll on larger warships. U.S. Central Command reports that Iran has seized at least 20 vessels since 2021. The U.S. Navy has in recent years taken specific and impactful measures to improve ship defenses. It has conducted numerous live-fire drills and scenario reenactments to sharpen its ability to counter and destroy swarming small boat attacks. Most surface Navy warships operate with a Close-In-Weapons-System (CIWS) ship-defense weapon, an "area" weapon able to fire hundreds of small metal projectiles across a wide envelope in seconds to destroy incoming enemy missiles, aerial drone swarms and even lower flying helicopters or other fast-incoming attacks. Ten years ago the Navy upgraded CIWS to specifically enable it to "blanket" incoming small boats across a wide surface area, essentially denying any ability for small boats to survive moving close in to large warships. Moreover, short- and mid-range deck-fired interceptors such as SeaRAM and the Rolling Airframe Missile have been upgraded to increase range, lethality and precision, weapons enhancements increasingly capable of targeting and destroying fast-moving small boats. Yet another critical factor is the air assets the Navy can deploy. The USS Bataan now in the region can carry 24 rotary-wing and fixed-wing attack aircraft. With its long-range, precision sensors and next-generation air-to-surface weaponry, a single F-35B would be positioned to obliterate groups of swarming small boats. The writer, president of the Center for Military Modernization, served at the Pentagon with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army - Acquisition, Logistics & Technology.